Trial, Error, and Everything Inbetween
by NekoKittyKat
Summary: Lance/Scott!!!!! Read the note at the beginning or you might get lost. New title, same story. New chapter added. Not as much humor as the first few chapters, becomes more serious and strange.
1. Ketchup+Water=Tomotoe Soup

Neko: I'm doing an AU to my own story line *-_-  
  
Scott: And that's possible how?  
  
Neko: Well you see, in this story they never went to that game that I made up and turned out insane so their still living in that crappy little house with the killer sofa bed and all my original characters except for Cami are 'poof' in wherever they were before.  
  
Scott: I see  
  
Neko: Yep, focus more on the people that count… you and Lance  
  
Scott: Yay  
  
Neko: And Cami and Pietro as a little sub thing, but that's just for me.  
  
Scott: Ok then so this is….  
  
Neko: Slash, season two never happened but the new recruits are there, and Mystique did send Cami over and is still giving her a 'small' allowance  
  
Scott: Works for me.  
  
"Should I even ask what you're doing?" Lance asked sitting down at the Brotherhood's table with a tray of what resemble tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. He stuck his cheap plastic spoon into the red liquid and watched as his sister drew on his friend's bicep with a fountain pen. Looking at the drawing the oldest mutant could see that it was a cheetah, and quiet an elaborate one at that.  
  
"Apparently she's been working on it since first break," Fred explained as they watched the wind rider work. "Pietro is actually being still for her too." That in itself was amazing. It was sort of given away by the fact the speed demon's fingers on the side not being worked on were going at a fair speed.  
  
"Why a cheetah?"  
  
"Cause they're fast and I really only know how to do animals," Cami responded eyes not leaving her work. "At the foster home I was in we did fountain pen tattoos and I found a talent and made money off it. I'm going to do a frog catching a fly on Todd's arm and Freddy's debating between a rhino or an elephant."  
  
"Um," Lance blinked, "ok, why?"  
  
"The fun of it, yo," Todd answered with a shrug. "Animal that sort of represents our powers, y'know? Better than writing Brotherhood across our backs or something."  
  
"But you're Toad, not Frog."  
  
"Yeah, but frog's look better and what kind of code name would Frog be?"  
  
"Never mind then," the rock tumbler shook his head giving up trying to figure his 'team' out, "Toad, is there a reason you're putting ketchup in a plastic bag?"  
  
"It's free," Todd answered stashing away another bag of ketchup, "as long as the X-geeks don't catch me, I also got Mayo and mustard." He took the white and yellow sandwich bags out for a brief moment before putting them back into his backpack.  
  
"What do we have to put ketchup on?" Fred asked. "Unless we wanted to make soup." Which brought him back to today's lunch.  
  
"There finished." Cami withdrew her pen and looked proudly at her work. "Makes him look a little less fruity don't cha think?"  
  
"I am not fruity," Pietro snapped back at her, "you're just jealous of how sexy I am." He looked at his new fountain pen tattoo.  
  
"Nope, fruity, but in the best possible way."  
  
"I think she's right, Maximoff, you're just a fruit."  
  
Pietro glared with ice blue eyes at his rival, "Who asked you, Daniels? Now beat it before I have to kick your ass."  
  
"Like you could."  
  
"Oh," Cami looked at Pietro with a sparkle in her eye, "let me, I haven't gotten a chance to kick X-geek butt yet." Then she looked at Avalanche as if for approval.  
  
"Sit back down, Shrimp, and start on Toad's frog tattoo whatever you're doing. Evan shouldn't even be over by our table. Maybe you should leave, hedgehog."  
  
"Well that's a new one," Evan shot back. "Isn't that, like, slimy?" He asked looking at Cami as she started her art on Todd's arm.  
  
"You been hanging 'round Pryde too much, yo. And I ain't slimy, that's only my tongue," Todd eyed the X-man and it looked like three out of five Brotherhood members were ready to jump him if Lance let them.  
  
"Yeah, sure, what…" He was cut off as Cami flicked a spoon at him and it hit him in the head before bouncing off and smacking Scott who was coming to get Evan in the forehead.  
  
"Two birds, one stone," she exchanged high fives with Pietro and Todd, "I rule."  
  
"Lovely welcome," Scott grumbled rubbing where the spoon had hit him, "come on, Evan, you've got no reason to be over here."  
  
"But…"  
  
"Evan, let's go!" Scott snapped giving the 'get going now or you'll be in more danger with me than them' look. "Were you aware that Maximoff, Toad, and Petro were all prepared to jump onto you and tear you apart if Alvers had so much as glanced away? Why were you over there in the first place."  
  
"I can go wherever I want," Evan protested, "and what could the Brotherhood's new little pet do to me anyway."  
  
"You'd be surprised what you can learn in a foster home." Both turned around to see Lance Alvers standing behind them with his hands in the pockets of his vest. "And may I warn you Daniels is that we're protective of our 'new little pet' and if I hear you talking that way about my sister again I will rip all those spikes out of your body." He turned around and walked back to the table.  
  
"Sister?" Both boys blinked and looked at each other before Spyke gulped.  
  
"I don't think it's Toad, Pietro, and Cami I need to be worried about."  
  
"Hah," Pietro laughed so hard he fell over and hit his head on the table.  
  
"Well there's three more brain cells of yours we need to find," Cami muttered taking a bite out of her sandwich.  
  
"Did you see Daniels face! That was priceless, Lance, simply priceless."  
  
"I thought you weren't going to threaten them just tell them to stay away," Fred remarked finishing his watered down ketchup in one slurp.  
  
"Yeah well, they called Cami our pet." Lance said realizing he'd just set Cami up for Pietro perfectly before he could stop himself.  
  
The white haired teen had recovered from his laughing enough to put his arm on Cami's shoulder and run his fingers through her light brown hair. "Well, she's my pet."  
  
"Watch it, or you'll be the one I'm tearing limb by limb," Lance warned in a growl.  
  
"I can take care of myself," Whirlwind protested, "now remove your arm, Pietro, before I rip it out of it's socket and beat you with it."  
  
"Oh, fiesty…"  
  
"Hey, shut up, yo, seems to be our bad day." Todd pointed to several approaching figures, "X-geek newbies are coming."  
  
"Oh, come on Lance, let us show them they're place," Pietro begged, "or let Cami, poor girl is deprived."  
  
"Yeah," Cami put in crossing her arms. "I never get to have any fun." A grin spread across her face as Lance waved an ok and went back to lunch. She stood up and hooked a thumb in one of the back pocket of her black jeans and approached Iceman, Boom Boom, Magma, and Berzerker with a walk that had the type of attitude only she and her brother could pull off.  
  
"Well, her walk is perfectly fine," Pietro noted taking notes on what they'd have to work on with their own recruit.  
  
Cami stuck her foot out casually just in front of Amara tripping the princess.  
  
"You did that on purpose! Apologize!" Amara practically shrieked glaring at the other mutant. She'd caught herself right before she'd done a face plant.  
  
"What? Why?" Cami looked as innocent and confused as possible. "It was an accident, I didn't do nothing. Maybe you should apologize to me. Could've twisted my ankle or something."  
  
"What?!" Amara was starting to get outraged by this common folk talking back to her like that.  
  
"Hey, let's just drop it," Bobby tried to intervene to avoid a scene. Poor Bobby was way too late for that. "I'm sure Cami didn't mean to and…"  
  
"Drake, she's one of them," Ray pointed toward the Brotherhood's table, "she did it on purpose no doubt and now I think she's…"  
  
"Opps, here comes your babysitters," Cami grinned wickedly and tapped Ray's nose, "see ya around, Sparky." With that she turned on her heels and walked back to the table and straddling the back of her chair facing the table as if nothing had happened.  
  
"Well, was I the only one to pick out her fatal flaw?" Pietro asked looking around the table.  
  
"What 'fatal flaw'?"  
  
"You left yourself open for…" Pietro paused and got up, "that, let's go guys." Everyone but Lance and Cami left the table as Jean, Scott, and Evan came up with Cami's targets behind them.  
  
"I think you should apologize to…" Jean started but didn't get a chance to finish as Cami interrupted her.  
  
"This is what you're doing," Cami made her hand look like it was talking, "this is what I want you to do." She closed her thumb against the bottom of her fingers and shook her head at Jean. "I thought telepaths knew this type of stuff."  
  
Lance swore he could see Scott smirk but it quickly vanished.  
  
"Did you just tell me to shut up?" Jean asked in shock. "You have some attitude."  
  
"Well sorry if my life hasn't been all sugar and roses like yours has so I actually have a personality."  
  
"It's no excuse for you to team up with them when we at the Institute can help you," Jean tried to sound kind and concerned and it was only getting Lance angry.  
  
"Back off, Red," Lance stood up and glared at Jean. "She can…"  
  
"Let me speak for myself," Cami cut in getting up and looking at the older girl in the face, "I don't need a pity party, I don't need training, I can't stand perfect people and from what I've seen that's what that institute of yours tries to do. You probably don't know half the pain I've been through, so good bye Miss top grades dating the football quarterback." She pushed passed Jean and stopped looking at Bobby then Ray who were blocking her path. "Sparky, Frosty, move please."  
  
"Not until you…" Ray was cut off as Lance pushed him to the side and put his arm around his sister's shoulders.  
  
"Let's go find the cowards," he looked back and saw Scott watching him and frowned before quickly turning his head back around. "Ditching you like that, not that you needed help," he rubbed her head effectively messing up her hair, "handled yourself pretty well there, Shrimp."  
  
"That's because," she ducked away from him and straightened her hair, "I am the Whirlwind and I'm going to blow this place away!"  
  
"So the bad puns are genetic?" The two looked over to see the very mutants they had been looking for relaxing against the lockers.  
  
"Apparently, yo."  
  
"Oh, can it you wimps," Cami snapped hitting Pietro over the head, "and that was not a bad pun it was a good one."  
  
"Let's not get into any more arguments," Fred sighed, fortunately the bell rang signaling the end of lunch and the start of classes that were designed to bore the students to death. Of course it was the seniors free period so while the other four grumbled and went to class Lance just waved.  
  
"I'll see you guys at home."  
  
"Oh, Lance," Cami said turning around and walking backward, "there's some pistachio pudding in the fridge for you."  
  
"I didn't know we had pistachio pudding," Todd whispered to Cami who just snickered and replied.  
  
"We don't, it's the tapioca pudding we made a few months ago."  
  
"Thanks, Cami, I'll save you guys some," Lance called back at them.  
  
"No need!"  
  
Hah, Lance thought as he headed for his jeep, like I'm going to fall for that one. He started out the doors and through the parking lot. A hand grabbed his shoulder and turned him around.  
  
"We need to talk  
  
Neko: Oo, cliffhanger. Though we all probably know who it is. Oh and my disclaimer is I own Cami and that's it so get off my back. You'll have to stick around for a while to figure it out because next chapter is… Cami and Fred in science class. Yeah, Fred got held back in science and blah, blah, blah. Maybe some Sparky torture while I'm at it, I'm just in an odd mood. 


	2. In Need of No one

Neko: And the insanity swells!  
  
Scott: um… ok *-_-  
  
"Ok, I've got a knock-knock joke," Cami started taking the glass beaker off the scale and filling it, "you start."  
  
"Ok, knock-knock," Fred started taking the full glass and weighing it. Ray sat away from them wondering how the hell he'd ended up partnered with those two.  
  
"Who's there?"  
  
Fred blinked trying to figure out where the joke was. "I don't get it."  
  
"You can't start a knock-knock joke!" Ray yelled standing up and looking annoyed with the two. "Can we just get this over with?"  
  
"Ah, ah, ah, Sparky," Cami 'tsked' and shook her finger at him, "just sit back and let us do this before we decide to just trash you."  
  
"Like you…" He stopped as Cami motioned to Fred.  
  
"Ok, as I was saying… What was the measurement for that one?" Fred pointed to his paper where he'd written it down. "Thank you. Ask me what month I was born in."  
  
"What month were you born in?" Fred complied.  
  
"August, now ask me what year."  
  
"What year?"  
  
"Every… Oh wait I messed it up. Darn it. I was suppose to say ask me what month my birthday is then after you ask what year I say every year."  
  
"Well, it would've been funny, I think."  
  
"No it wouldn't have," Ray grumbled being ignored. Just then there seemed to be someone out there watching him as the blissful screech of the fire alarm started up. He started to doubt his revelation that there was a God when Cami looked at Fred mouthed 'Pietro' and Fred nodded. Ack! No member of the Brotherhood would watch out for him, they didn't even watch out for each other, they were evil… Right?  
  
"Look, I'm sorry for Jean and Ray and," Scott started facing Lance acting like conversing with the other mutant was an everyday thing to him. Lance just blinked in return wondering where the hell all this apologizing had come from. "I had no idea Cami was your sister, or that you even had one and I sort of want to talk to you a…" Just then the fire alarm went off. Shit, Scott thought, that wasn't suppose to happen.  
  
"Pietro must've gotten bored again," Lance mumbled yelping in surprise as Summers suddenly grabbed the collar of his shirt making sure no one was out yet and kissing him. "Uh…Wha…" Where basically the sounds that came out of the dark haired teen as his brain tried to process just what that was. It didn't get much time, as some of the first out of the doors were Pietro and Todd. What they saw from how far away they were was Summers with Lance by the collar.  
  
"Back off, yo!" Todd yelled hopping up and grabbing Scott's wrist and giving the senior a stern look, or as stern a look as Todd could give.  
  
"You're horribly outnumbered here, Summers," Pietro said in one breath and Fred came up behind Scott and lifted him up by the back of his shirt. In the few (aka many) seconds it'd taken Toad to do his one act of courage and glare at Scott some the speed demon had found the other two members of their rag tag team.  
  
"No he's not," Ray, who'd followed the two had gotten some of the new mutants to play superhero.  
  
"Hey, Sparky," Cami grinned wickedly as the wind started to pick up till the entire school who was now outside was wondering how it had gotten so windy all of a sudden and the science teacher's toupee flew off. "What cha going to do about it?"  
  
"Wait," Lance waved his team off and Fred put Scott down, Cami gradually killed her mild windstorm and Pietro and Todd just stood there. "Wow, I wasn't actually expecting you to listen."  
  
"Yeah, well, you're the only one with a job," Todd answered, "and eating ain't something I'm willing to give up."  
  
"Get back to your classes," Lance ordered amazed at his new power. "Or with your classes or whatever. I can take care of myself, thank you. Plus I have to get to work."  
  
"We're coming by just to see you in that stupid uniform," Pietro informed him.  
  
"I'll make a note of it now GO!" In a few seconds they were all leaving and Scott told the new mutants to scram as well. "Look," Lance started his journey to his jeep back up, "I don't know what the hell that was back there and personally I don't fucking care so how about we forget it happened?"  
  
"Because I have been working up the nerve to do that for a month and a half," Scott practically hissed back hearing the 'ok' bell that let the students go back in but not registering it, "and it wasn't anything easy."  
  
"I don't believe you, you know what I don't want to believe you." Lance fished in his pockets for his keys. "If you want to turn this into a joke just laugh and say 'I got you' or something and I'll laugh too but I am not that way." At that moment his brain was arguing with him that he was and how nice it would be to have those soft lips on his chapped ones once again, but anger, confusion, and 'Avalanche' worked together to beat it down. Unlocking the door Lance glanced back seeing for once Scott smirking instead of him. "Shove it, Summers," the earth manipulator growled at his rival as things started to shift to normal in his head, "maybe next time I won't call Blob, Quicksilver, Whirlwind, and Toad off." He used code names for the sake of sounding threatening and to remind himself that Scott was the opposite, sit on high horse-eat disgusting food that people call delicacies-have places to train, team. Once he'd started the car he turned the radio on.  
  
I would swallow my pride I would choke on the rines but the lack there off would leave me empty inside, swallow my doubt turn it inside out find nothing but…  
  
Lance changed the radio station reminding himself never to leave Cami or Pietro in the car unattended as he had to readjust everything. Scott was still standing there and Lance rolled his eyes finally finding his station again, commercials typical.  
  
"You're cute when you're confused and angry."  
  
"Where the hell did that come from?!" Lance snapped.  
  
"Listen, just let it sink in, k? Then talk to me," Scott suggested playing cool even though he was screaming, shaking, and beating himself with a constant little voice going 'stupid, stupid, stupid' in his head.  
  
"Whatever." Lance hit reverse, 15 minutes left to get to work ten minutes away without any delays and he didn't have anymore time to talk with the X-geek.  
  
A decade ago I never thought I would be, at twenty-three, on the verge of spontaneous combustion. Woe-is-me. But I guess that it comes with the territory; an ominous landscape of never ending calamity. I need you to hear. I need you to see that I have had all I can take and exploding seems like a definite possibility to me. So pardon me while I burst into flames. I've had enough of the world and it's people's mindless games.  
  
So pardon me while I burn and rise above the flame. Pardon me, pardon me.... I'll never be the same.  
  
Now this was music, why couldn't he convince his friend and sibling of that? Rock was music, good music and yet Pietro had to complain about how it was another pun having to do with rocks and earthquakes and stuff. Now to get through work without falling asleep.  
  
"We never did go see Lance," Todd commented as Pietro flew by him and into the wall. He looked over at the irate Cami who'd caused the speed demon to fly. "Aw what now?"  
  
"He was trying to beat me at my own game," Cami grumbled, "said he could make a tornado better than me and started running around and well… I proved him wrong."  
  
Just then lance slammed the door open and right into Pietro who was just getting over the stun of being thrown into a wall.  
  
"Um…" Todd peeked behind the door at Pietro whose nose was now bleeding. "Well, he's alive."  
  
"Cami, you're horrible for my health," Pietro mumbled getting off the wall and smiling at her, "but I've always appreciated a challenge."  
  
"You're getting blood on the carpet," Fred informed the speedster from the couch.  
  
"I'm not going to ask," Lance sighed flopping onto the couch, "and Pietro, stop bleeding on the carpet."  
  
"Not my fault you slammed the door on me," Pietro cupped his hand under his nose and went into the kitchen for a cloth to help stop the bleeding.  
  
"Shut up, Pietro, I've had a hard day." Lance just sunk into the couch and closed his eyes. Slowly the thoughts about Scott crept back into his head wary of the personalities of Lance that wanted to beat them down.  
  
When Lance opened his eyes again he was in his room. He must've fallen asleep and Fred had brought him up or something. The high school senior got up and looked around and for a moment I felt like I was in some sort of video game. It couldn't really be described, but it felt like in those video games when the screen went black then when it showed again your character was in a completely different place and you're left wondering how the heck they got there.  
  
"That's an interesting way of thinking about it," an almost melodic voice chimed causing Lance to turn around and just stare.  
  
"You're, you're…"  
  
"Honestly, dear, I thought I'd taught you better to stutter like that. But yes, I am dead, I still can come visit you in your dreams though." The woman, about her mid to late thirties not having aged since Lance was ten… or was it eleven when he'd last seen her? Chocolate brown hair cascaded down the woman's shoulders and her matching eyes sparkled in the dim light. "Come, sit." She patted the area on the bed next to her, one leg tucked underneath her. "You can talk to me, you know."  
  
"This is…"  
  
"A dream," the woman answered, "yes, but dreams can be very informative. Now talk to me, Lance."  
  
"I'm just having troubles taking care of everyone and staying and school and all that."  
  
"Maybe you should ask for help?"  
  
"No," he looked out the window to see a golden toned sky and a green field in replace of the run down neighborhood he lived in, "I don't need them to help me, I'm not a kid anymore, mom, ever since you died I haven't needed anyone's help. I can make it work."  
  
"I think you do need them."  
  
"They need me, I don't need them. I've gotten this far on my own and…" He dropped his sentence.  
  
"And it's lonely." Lance winced at her words for some reason. "Now you've got a chance for it to be not so lonely and you don't want to take it. Your friends, Fred, Todd, and Pietro, all of them are company but they're all trying to get along without anyone. They're doing the same thing you are, trying to convince themselves they're needed but don't need anyone."  
  
"What about Cami?"  
  
"Cami is a different case. She fears being hurt and tries to avoid situations where it is possible." A small pause before she continued. "You are the only one she's let get close enough to her to have a chance at hurting her though she's let Fred and Todd get close also."  
  
"Why not Pietro?"  
  
"She's afraid of being hurt like you are afraid of being hurt by Scott."  
  
"I am not! I'm just not that…"  
  
"Don't lie to me, I'm your mother. We don't appreciate lying where I've been. You, Lance, are willing to let Scott in but there are barriers, like what if he's playing with you, what would the others think, what would Cami think. My advice to you is what all kids TV programs advice kids to do."  
  
"Rott there teeth with candy?" The teen fell onto the bed looking at the person he'd wanted to see for so long but was only possible in his dreams.  
  
"No, be yourself and follow your heart," she pressed her lips to his forehead tenderly, "and don't hate someone because you fear your feelings for them." And with that she vanished like she'd been made from sand and the wind had blown her image away. Where she'd been sitting there was a piece of fabric from the blanket she'd given him the day they'd ran away from his father and his sister. He slipped it into his pocket and lied on the bed closing his eyes once again.  
  
"Fred, turn the radio down!" A female voice yelled and Lance pealed his lids open to look up at Cami and noticed how similar she was to their mother. Only difference was her hair was much lighter. "Lance is trying to… oh, never mind!" She smiled at him resting her head in her palms. "Have a nice nap?"  
  
"Yeah," Lance replied slipping his hand into his pocket and frowning slightly when he didn't feel the cloth. Oh well that sort of stuff only happened in the movies. "It was very informative." He got up and headed for the door. "I'll be back in time for dinner." Then Lance was out the door, he had to talk to Scott.  
  
Neko: Hehe, thought the cloth was going to be there didn't ya? Ha, gotcha! Well, this is what comes from me playing too much Final fantasy VIII that was what was with the whole video game thing. Lance and Squall are kind of a like. Well at least to me. Anyway REVIEW! I only got one and I'm feeling find of bummed because I thought that it was good.( Oh, and heads up later Ray might end up with the Brotherhood cause I know numerous people who think that's where he belongs and though I don't know the guy really, what I do know about him all points at yes and plus… I don't know, more area for Sparky torture. Till next chapter! 


	3. Vinyl Records Still Exsist?

Neko: And now Scott and Lance talk (without yelling)  
  
Scott: Shut up  
  
Neko: Anyway, I'm thinking of trying a little citrus, not full out lemon, but I want you people *points at you, yes you* to tell me what you want. Being psychic  
  
Scott: Don't you mean psycho?  
  
Neko: Shut up unless you want Lance to get skittish again.  
  
Scott: You're mean  
  
Neko: gr… Being-psychic-only-works-in-person There, ha!  
  
Scott: When you do that do your lips ever catch on fire?  
  
Neko: *-_-  
  
~~  
  
"Why don't we have any to date music in this house?" Cami asked with a frown of disapproval at what was playing.  
  
Fred looked through the music selection, found what he was looking for and switched it with the current music. "They don't make vinyl records anymore."  
  
Yes, it was true. The Brotherhood house was probably the single house in America that had a working vinyl record player. Getting records was pretty cheap though.  
  
Todd jumped onto the table and played air guitar. "BORN TO BE WILD!" For a while he danced and played air guitar and sang 'Born to Be Wild' by Steppin' Wolf. "LIKE A TRUE NATURE'S CHILD!"  
  
"Todd, stop it before I break that record over your head!" Fred snapped covering his ears with his large hands.  
  
"And get off the table!"  
  
"You two ain't no fun, yo," Todd stuck his tongue out at his friends and hopped off the table and over to the fridge. "Wonder where Lance went anyway, he ain't home yet and it's almost dinner time."  
  
"He'd said he'd be back by dinner," Cami replied as Toad pulled out random leftovers to make a meal out of, "so he'll be back by dinner."  
  
"And I was in a coma before I was put in a foster home," Scott swung on the fireman's pole before resting his head on it looking at Lance expectantly as the other mutants legs swung back and forth off the old wooden jungle gym. "Ok, you're turn."  
  
"My turn?"  
  
"Yeah," Scott replied casually taking a seat next to the other, "how'd you end up in a foster home."  
  
"My mom, she never really separated my dad but after she left with me he didn't come looking for us, she was murdered by anti-mutants when I was ten." A sobering silence settled between them and Lance started back up before Scott told him he didn't have to. "I was there, her power was creating force fields or something but she could only create one at a time. Didn't have any place to help her develop her powers. I'd gotten out of bed when I heard her scream." Lance paused and shook his head blinking a couple of times to keep the threatening tears from spilling. "I saw what was going on and hid, I didn't even try to stop them or anything, just hid behind our futon. She used her power to protect me, to keep me from running out and getting myself killed. That's the first time I ever used my own power, it just sort of came out and the men ran because the house was going to come down on them."  
  
"And of course the police came and you were put in a foster home," Scott finished. Lance just nodded. Now I understand why he is such a messed up delinquent, Scott thought to himself as Lance just simply starred out over the playground, I mean, I know my parents died, but he actually saw his mother murdered. That would traumatize anyone.  
  
"I should go home, I said I'd be home for dinner," the earth manipulator finally broke the silence with a slightly choked voice. "I'd rather not they come looking for me, but yeah, you wanted to talk, we talked." He hopped down onto the graveled ground.  
  
"Wait," Scott got up, "how about a movie, tomorrow. We can eat there or whatever."  
  
"I'll think about it."  
  
The next day in English (which anyone who's familiar with my stories knows Scott and Lance have together) Mr. Cox assigned poems to his senior class. They didn't have to be a certain type of poem, just a poem that was original in the next twenty minutes, later they'd share the poems.  
  
Oh great, twenty minutes, so that's how he plans on getting feeling into our poems. Lance rolled his eyes and got out a piece of paper. He didn't want to write a poem, the last one he'd had to share had been so dark that everyone suggested he go see a councilor. He just shrugged and said he'd been going for a whole Edgar Allen Poe thing and most everyone had let it slide. Ok, now to decide what type of poem. Damn it, what's it called. Aw forget it. Lance put the tip of his pencil to pen and started glancing over at Scott through the corner of his eye. Damn, damn, damn! I cannot think of anything. Ok, write Lance, write! With a final breath the rock tumbler started to write for the sake of graduating.  
  
1 Flames of Wrath, Waters of Peace  
  
Shall I burst into the flames of Wrath  
  
or sink into the calm waters of peace  
  
It's often difficult to choose the right path  
  
To be the wolf in the sheep's fleece  
  
Wrath and rage are violent and fierce  
  
Wanting to destroy anything in its way  
  
Hopes, dreams, and hearts it does pierce  
  
But when with you never long does it stay  
  
Peace is neither my preferred choice  
  
Being too boring and far too plain  
  
With too much peace I'll lose my voice  
  
And the me that's me won't be the same  
  
Somewhere the middle ground I'll fine  
  
And finally have a balanced mind. (A/N: My poem, hehe, wrote it for English)  
  
Ok, Lance though putting his pencil down with five minutes left, good enough.  
  
"Time!" Mr. Cox said like it'd been some sort of test. "Now, who wants to share?" There wasn't a hand up. The elder teacher sighed at the lack of participation. "Scott, you start. Front of the class."  
  
The red shaded teen got up and took his paper with him to the front of the class.  
  
"Could you take your glasses off?"  
  
"No, I can't." Scott answered tapping his sunglasses, "Eye condition, have a note." He cleared his throat and started his poem. "Why I Hate You. I hate it when you look at me with that coldness in your eyes. I hate when you turn me away like you don't even care. I hate when you fight with me though I know neither of us really try, deep down we both know that it really isn't fair. I hate you because you hate me, but we both know that's a lie. The reason I hate you the most is that I don't really hate you at all."  
  
There was a pause before some students clapped and Mr. Cox looked like he wanted to kill himself.  
  
"Twenty minutes and that's what you came up with?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
Suddenly Mr. Cox left completely for a few minutes then came back in. "Ok, next."  
  
It was a few more walkouts by the teacher it was time for lunch, and more insanity from the three stooges and Fred.  
  
"I say they should let the coyote catch the road runner."  
  
"NEVER! The roadrunner can never be caught! He's too fast."  
  
"How did we get talking about this?" Fred asked stuffing three chicken nuggets, if that's what they were, into his mouth.  
  
"Um…" Todd thought as Pietro and Cami continued their argument. "I don't know. I think Pietro got hit in the nose with a basketball in PE. Then was saying how it wasn't any worst than being blown into the wall and how Cami had just gotten a lucky break then Cami said 'oh yeah, you're practically the road runner' and it went down hill from there."  
  
"Hah, 'you don't know' my ass," Pietro stuck his tongue out before frowning at Lance. "Hey, where's he today?" Picking up one of the springy false meat nuggets, the speedster chucked it at Lance's head. "Yo, Lance, back to Earth!"  
  
"Sorry, Todd," Lance replied not looking over and realizing the 'yo' had come from Pietro.  
  
"TODD?!?!" Pietro tried to jump out of his seat but Cami grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him back down.  
  
"Don't blame him," Cami looked Lance over and shook her head, "he's totally staring at someone. He's gone like totally gaga."  
  
"Cami, listen to yourself."  
  
"Huh? Wha?" She repeated her last statement in her head. "Aw, shit, if I ever sound like that again KILL ME!"  
  
"Ok, so, Lance," Pietro threw another chicken nugget, "who's this girl you're eyeing?" After no answer another chicken nugget was thrown.  
  
"Why are you throwing chicken nuggets at me?" Lance snapped turning around and hurling the recently thrown one back at him. "Aren't you eating any of them?"  
  
"No," the hyper active adrenaline junkie shook his head, "no, not really."  
  
"So, Lance," Todd tried pushing Pietro over but only got hit in the back of the head. "Ow. Ok, that's it speedy." And with that the frog-like mutant used his strong legs to pounce onto Pietro with amazing force and the two ended up wrestling in their seats, getting ketchup everywhere in the process.  
  
"Cut it out you two," Fred frowned at the two wondering if he should break it up. Oh well, it was entertainment.  
  
"Hey, leave me out of this," Cami pushed the two away and rolled her eyes. "So who is she, or h… Damn it you two I said leave me out of this!" She picked up her chicken nuggets and threw them at both of them. Lance sighed with relief knowing what his sister had been about to say.  
  
"I'm going to go get a soda." The senior got up hoping to not come back until after the food fight was over and started to the hall.  
  
"Can we get a puppy?" Cami suddenly blurted out moving into Lance's seat to get away from the two freaks fighting next to hers. "I mean, I asked for a puppy with all my families and over half said I could get one but I never did."  
  
"A puppy?" Fred asked in confusion.  
  
"Yeah, we can go to the animal shelter and get one and name him or her Greg."  
  
Lance shook his head trying to figure out a way that he wasn't in fact related to that.  
  
"Why'd you name a girl dog Greg?"  
  
"Because I can!"  
  
Lance just shook his head and wondered if he should get a soda the human way or the mutant way. Security cameras hadn't been set up yet and if no one were around…. Mutant way would be far easier. He placed his hand on the machine and gave it a good shake frowning when a can of Sprite came out. He'd wanted something caffinated like Mountain Dew, but of course that always meant there was a chance Pietro or Cami would take it and get a sugar high. Those were always interesting.  
  
"You know, some people use money."  
  
Lance sighed not looking at Scott as he popped the tap of his pop, "And some people have money. Unfortunately I'm not one of those people."  
  
"Then don't have a…"  
  
"Shut up before I punch you and risk knocking some creativity into you."  
  
"So you didn't like my poem," Scott said with a pout, "ah well. I liked yours might I add. Didn't know you could actually rhyme."  
  
"You've had caffeine, haven't you?" Lance asked chugging a healthy amount from the Sprite can. "Either that or someone pulled the stick out of your ass."  
  
"I'll have to go with the caffeine."  
  
"Good choice."  
  
"So what about a movie?"  
  
"I have work, and then a house of four insane trouble-makers to manage."  
  
"I understand. How about tomorrow?"  
  
"Same."  
  
"Do you ever get any time to yourself?"  
  
"Yeah, at work."  
  
"Then I'll go there," Scott answered, "just where do you work?"  
  
"If you really care you'll find out, but it's in the mall."  
  
"That narrows things down."  
  
"Yep, I've got to go see if Pietro and Todd are done fighting yet."  
  
"Alright, I'll see you after lunch."  
  
"Maybe."  
  
"Yeah, maybe." Scott smirked, yes actually smirked, and then walked away waving his hand lightly just above his shoulder as a good bye.  
  
A/N: I hate writer's block, but here is the third chapter for everyone who cares! And tell me if I should try a citrus or not. 


	4. Hello, my name is Ray

Neko: I didn't get to see "The Hex Factor". WAAAA!  
  
Scott: Boo-hoo, Lucy.  
  
Neko: Lucy? 0_0 Oh well, I've decided you're a prick with a stick up his ass and (for all of you who were hoping this would get really Lance/Scott) I've come to the decision that Lance is too good for you. I'm still deciding so there is still hope. Anyway, you're being replaced in the pre story rants (for now) by *drum roll* Freddy!  
  
Scott: Fred?!?!?  
  
Neko: Yep. *Snaps her fingers and Scott disappears* I think Fred deserves a lot more screen and fic time than he gets! Am I the only one he reminds of a teddy bear? Anyway I want any and all information on "The Hex Factor"  
  
Fred: What's with the quotes?  
  
Neko: I'm not sure, anyway, I don't have cable and I have a friend who would record the episodes if we could find the channel! (If anyone knows what Kids WB's channel is in the eastern region of Washington by Spokane, could you tell me?) Now I have to go make dinner.  
  
Fred: What are we having?  
  
Neko: Pizza.  
  
Fred: ^_^ Yummy  
  
  
  
"So I was thinking of getting a job myself and so were Fred and Pietro to help…" Cami didn't get to finish her sentence while talking to Lance while ordering a corn dog for Fred. After school the 'three stooges and Fred' had decided to go to the mall and just window shop and try on random clothes and what not. Only reason Fred was getting a corn dog was that since Lance worked there he got a discount on the food.  
  
"No, you three need to keep at your studies. I know you're sixteen and all that but I know your suffering in math and science and getting a job would just hurt you more. Same goes for Fred and Pietro."  
  
"You're taking on too much," she shot back with a frown, "I mean, you definitely need some serious sleep, we're still drowning in money problems, and what about your grades?"  
  
"Cami, I'm not arguing with you, here's your corn dog and don't bring this up again."  
  
"I suppose you'd rather we become bank robbers?" He gave her a that's- not-even-remotely-funny glare and she took the bread wrapped byproduct and left.  
  
"So stubbornness runs in your family, Alvers." The young man looked up to see Scott with Rogue and Kitty. He sounded so harsh. "Why am I not surprised?"  
  
"Scott, can't ya just be nice ta him just through ordering?" Rogue asked rolling her eyes.  
  
"Yeah, I suppose." The X-men's leader made a show of his hate for Lance and Avalanche was mentally slapping himself. That hypocritical bastard!  
  
"What's a matter?" Whirlwind curled up in her brother's lap as he lied on the couch starring at the ceiling. (A/N: don't ya just love my confusing scene switches?)  
  
"Nothing, just thought someone was different when I knew they weren't." The teen rubbed one eye with his left hand and stroked Cami's hair with his right. Their skin tone was identical. It always seemed sort of surreal in a way to have her back and sometimes waking up he felt like she'd be gone and he worried the same things about his 'brothers' as well now that he thought about it.  
  
"Who?"  
  
"I'd rather not say. Why are you so rough with Pietro?" Changing the subject had seemed like a good thing.  
  
"I'm not rough with him, he just needs his ego deflated. Why can't I get a job?" And another subject change.  
  
"Because I said so." He had things to worry about bigger than Summers playing with his mind, he had a sister and three other team mates who needed him and he knew he needed them too but couldn't admit it. Sure he'd shared a hallmark moment with his rival but it had felt like he was just being pressed for information. Life was just too difficult to be worrying about things that should never be.  
  
"Fine, we'll become bank robbers."  
  
"Cami."  
  
"What? We'll copy those guys off that movie, Bandits, and spend the night at the…"  
  
"Cami."  
  
"It's a perfectly good id…"  
  
"Camilla."  
  
"How dare you use my full name."  
  
"You're talking about robbing a bank!" The clock that was old and dusty but still ticking read 9:23 in the corner of the living room when there was a soft but firm knock on the door. "Go get it."  
  
"Do I have…" He pushed her off his lap and she growled going to open the door. "Sparky! Why the hell are you here?"  
  
Lance turned around and looked at the door ready to jump on the new mutant if he tried to make a move to harm his sister or team.  
  
"I… I need a place to stay. The Professor told me that he was going to send me home and…" Ray looked to the side not wanting to finish his sentence.  
  
"Aw… family troubles? Don't worry, it's practically a requirement to live here."  
  
"What?" Lance stood up and scowled looking as intimidating as he possibly could. "You can't even be considering on letting him staying."  
  
"What's going on in… what is he doing here?" Pietro said just appearing practically out of no where.  
  
"X-geek problems," Cami answered.  
  
"We can't…"  
  
"Hey," Ray interrupted, "if you don't want me I understand, I've spent a lot of time not being completely wanted anywhere until I went to the institute and made friends. Then Xavier decides he doesn't want me and I know I've a temper and all of that shit, but I don't want to go home because all my parents do is fight and disappear for weeks at a time and I can't stay at the institute so I thought here would be my best bet. I guess I was wrong." He turned to leave when Fred spoke up from the back.  
  
"You're in," the large mutant walked up to the door and held out his hand, "and if ya are just spying on us for the X-jerks I'll personally kill you, not that there's much to spy on."  
  
"Fine, he can stay," Lance sighed and crossed his arms knowing if he turned a mutant in need away he'd be no better than Mystique and Magneto abandoning them. "You pull your own weight around here, though."  
  
"Wait, so just you and Fred have a…" Pietro shut up as Cami said 'I'm for it' and the vote was three to two even though Todd was outback hunting for flies and other 'tasty morsels'. "FINE! Out vote me, I don't care."  
  
"Oh, stop being so pouty," Cami grabbed Ray's am and dragged him into the living room. "Let me give you the tour, Freddy, take his bags would ya?" She let go of Bezerker's arm and motioned around her. "This is the living room slash my room slash the meeting room slash the recreation room slash the medical wing. Up there," she pointed at the stairs, "is the rooms and vault that no one can get into. That's," she pointed again, "the way to the land of no return, also known as the basement, and over there is the kitchen where we don't often allow Pietro."  
  
"HEY! I'm not that bad of a cook."  
  
"Sure you aren't, and through the kitchen is the backyard, or known more commonly as Toad's buffet."  
  
"I say we let your sister give the tours from now on, Lance," Fred commented in a whisper, "she does it so peppy, like Pryde on crack or something."  
  
"Kitty doesn't do crack, thought that is a scary thought."  
  
"And yeah, that's about it." Cami looked around for something else to say when something from behind attacked Ray and started to beat him with a flimsy stick.  
  
"Ow, hey, ok, that's it frog breath." Ray was about to turn around and beat the crap out of Todd, but of course everyone favored the first member ever of their little group to the newest. Fred pulled Toad away from Berserker as Lance reacted to the potential use of powers by twisting the boy whom seriously needed a haircut's arms behind his back.  
  
"What's he doin' here, yo!"  
  
"He needs a place to stay," Cami replied standing in-between the two incase they broke free, fat chance though. "No need to attack him with a stick."  
  
"He couldn't hurt me anyway, the little," Ray shut up as Lance twisted his arms harder.  
  
"Listen, we could easily kick you out onto the streets." The eldest mutant was serious and tightened his grip. "You asked to stay here and we aren't keeping you here but we will throw you out."  
  
"Sorry, I… I just lost my temper." Ray relaxed when he was released and Lance went to deal with Todd.  
  
"And how is it when we don't need you to you become vicious?" the earth shaker asked Toad. "We didn't really need help either."  
  
"Well that rules out my first excuse," Todd replied not bothering to struggle to get away from the Blob. "I just didn't like a little X-brat being here and wanted to…"  
  
"Todd," Pietro sighed rubbing his temples, "how many times do we have to tell you that no you aren't just the mascot mess up of the team here only for comical relief and you don't have to prove otherwise?"  
  
"Apparently more often, yo."  
  
"Ok, if we let you go will you not attack our guest?"  
  
"Yeah, sure whatever, I just don't want his getting' more authority than me like Cami does!"  
  
"It's not authority," Cami explained rolling her eyes, "it's called being the little sister of the over protective unofficial leader."  
  
"I am not over protective!" Lance scowled as everyone but Ray nodded.  
  
"Yes you are," four voices said in unison.  
  
A/N: Ok, kind of short but…. I'm going to have to take a break from this for a while. Sorry for all you fans (all two of you) but I just feel like it's not that important. Maybe if I get a whole lot of people bothering me I'll be inspired but right now it just ain't happening. 


	5. Weekend Road Trip

Nekokittykat: WAH!!!  
  
Fred: What?  
  
Nekokittykat: I was reading some of my favorite slashes to see if it'd help get past the cursed writer's block and found out that I had sort of kind of copied some scenes. Oh my god, I can't believe I did that, like the scene with Evan and Scott is like on of SRI Queen's stories and that's the only thing that really jumped out of me but if I did I beg for forgivness, I do it without noticing because the parts are just so damn good!  
  
Fred: I'm sure everyone does it now and then.  
  
Nekokittykat: Yeah, I'm SOOOOO sorry (bangs head on wall)  
  
Fred: Aw, come on, you don't have the brain cells to lose.  
  
Nekokittykat: I'm going to go watch Dude, Where's My Car? now and Crazy/Beautiful with a tub of ice cream.  
  
Fred: Um… ok…. SCOTT! What do I do?  
  
Scott: I'm not helping you after you stole my job.  
  
Fred: Yeah, but… nevermind I'll eat all the ice cream before she can get it!  
  
Scott: *-_- I need caffine.  
  
~  
  
"Todd, 'the shit has hit the fan' is not a decent poem to memorize for language arts," Lance sighed and rested his head back against the armrest of the couch. "Cami, you are not going to do anything to the school sprinkler system, Pietro put the coffee down, Fred, leave enough for the rest of us, and I've no clue what you're doing Ray but stop it."  
  
With that Todd went to go find a new poem, Cami put the blue dye away, Pietro put the coffee mug down, Fred took one last bite, and Ray looked up from one of the catalogues he was looking through that came to the door though no one wanted it.  
  
"What did I do?"  
  
"I don't know," Lance grumbled, "but in this house it's always something."  
  
"He's just paranoid," Cami assured Ray trying to put the dye back where it belonged but after standing on her tiptoes nearly falling over. "One of the reasons all of the food dye is kept out of my reach! The sheep deserve to be taught a lesson!"  
  
"The sheep?" Ray took the dye and put it up for her.  
  
"Yep, or some other sort of livestock, haven't you ever noticed everyone at school tends to form groups and all just walk around together following each other like they're in a herd."  
  
"Um… I guess so."  
  
"And that's the useless information for the day," rolling his head to the side Lance saw just what time it was. Aw, damn it, I don't want to go to school. "Hey, get your butts moving, I'm leaving in five minutes with or without you! And no, Pietro, that does not mean you can stay home!"  
  
"Darn it, I don't want-a go!" The speedster pouted looking a lot like a three-year-old who'd just been told to eat his green beans and added a small foot stomp just to make it dramatic.  
  
"Oh, too hard for you?" Todd teased finishing off the houseflies over the garbage can reading his new poem to memorize by second period.  
  
"Ooo, sounds like a challenge."  
  
"That's cause it is," Todd replied hopping off the counter and squinting at the book (very, very old book and unused) in his hands.  
  
"Damn you!"  
  
"I'm quicker than you think," Todd shoved the book into his ragged backpack and straightened the straps grinning broadly right before Pietro tripped him.  
  
"It's not good to lie, Toad, it's fun, but not good."  
  
Meanwhile in a laboratory somewhere…  
  
"What's going on?" A voice snapped, strong and commanding.  
  
"She's reliving the last five minutes of her life," another voice replied. Was that the grief she felt? Was that why everything seemed clouded? She'd been somewhere wonderful, there was no pain or suffering, just the feeling she used to get when visiting her Grandmother and making cookies with her. Now it was cold and feeling coursed through her veins yet again.  
  
"We can't lose her because of memories, give her the sedative." And in moments a cool numb feeling flowed over the woman.  
  
"I still don't like playing God," the second voice mumbled.  
  
"Well, I think God would appreciate it!" That was the last from the commanding voice before boots hitting metal marked his exit.  
  
In the Cafeteria…  
  
"You five are going to be on your own this weekend." The table fell silent at Lance's statement. After today there were three days off and Lance planned a trip for himself to get away from the insanity for a while.  
  
"You're leaving us?" Cami asked in a confused tone through a mouthful of mystery meat.  
  
"I'm not leaving you, I'm just going on vacation for the weekend. Freddy is in charge until I get back, and please, don't kill each other." Before anyone could ask where he was going to he stood up and left, dumping his tray on the way out the door.  
  
"Lance, wait." Scott jogged to catch up with the other senior and frowned in disappointment when he got no reply. "Look, I'm sorry about the hot dog place."  
  
"If that's true, why'd you do it?" Lance turned to face the other, lips set in a stern frown.  
  
"Isn't it what you would have done? If I knew you weren't just playing around with me, that you really did feel the same way about me that I do you I would've grabbed you by the collar, pulled you over that counter, and kissed you if you'd wanted me to. They look up to me, though," Scott paused and shrugged, "for some odd reason and I didn't want to hurt them for nothing."  
  
"Fine, ok, I can understand that. I'll talk to you when I get back."  
  
"Where are you going?" Scott asked walking beside the slightly taller mutant.  
  
"To be alone." Was the only answer as the metal key was slipped into the lock of the forest green jeep's door.  
  
"I'll go with you!" Overly chipper from being forgiven Scott glanced around then got in the passenger's side of the jeep.  
  
Lance just blinked at him a couple times not sure what to say to the shaded mutant sitting in his car. "I'm going to be gone the entire weekend."  
  
"I could use a vacation."  
  
"I'm going to sleep in the jeep."  
  
"Cozy."  
  
"There isn't anything I can say to get you to not come is there?"  
  
Scott shook his head. "I must get away from Jean for a while, she is driving me insane! Plus we can get where ever faster because we can take turns sleeping. Where are we going anyway?"  
  
Lance rolled his eyes seeing it was clear that Scott wasn't giving up. "Caffeine again?"  
  
"Yep."  
  
"Great."  
  
Back in the cafeteria….  
  
"That's it? No good bye? No see ya later?" Cami stood up and pointed at where Lance had exited. "I disown you, I am no longer related to you."  
  
Ray looked up at her and blinked, "I don't think it works like that."  
  
"Plus she's talking to someone who's already left," Todd pointed out, "sometimes we just have to leave her alone to do her own thing and get it out of her system."  
  
"Wait, Freddy is in charge!" She moved so she was sitting next to him and smiled sweetly.  
  
"Ah hell no," Fred muttered.  
  
"Please."  
  
"No, Lance wouldn't appreciate us getting a puppy while he's gone. How would we pay for it?"  
  
"We'd get a little dog so it could eat our scraps."  
  
Todd spoke before anyone else could, "When do we ever have leftovers?"  
  
"That's not the point."  
  
"Cami," Fred tried reasoning with her, "you couldn't take care of that house fly you 'saved' from Toad that one time."  
  
"Flies live only for a few days and I kept it alive a week!"  
  
"What about the goldfish?"  
  
"Goldfish always die, especially the ones you win at the carnival."  
  
"The parakeet?"  
  
"It's not my fault you sat on it! Poor Mr. Chippers."  
  
"Mr. Chippers?" Ray was starting to wonder just how sane these people were. "And you sat on it."  
  
"The bird was near sited," Fred answered smacking Pietro and Todd before they could make any jokes. "That's why we got it so cheap."  
  
"Wait, I don't want a puppy anymore, you'd just sit on it, you cold blooded murderer!" She made a show of looking extremely upset and turned to Ray and 'cried' into his shoulder.  
  
"Uh… there, there." Ray looked around for help. It was at that point Cami sniffed and put her arms around him. "It's… ok." I think.  
  
"Well, I'm leaving before I hurl." Pietro stood up and grabbed his tray walking off with his eye twitching unusually.  
  
"Fine, we'll go to the animal shelter," Fred gave in to help their new team member out of his current situation, "but I'm not promising anything!"  
  
"YAY!" Cami popped up and hugged Fred with a big smile. "Thank you. I'm going to tell Speedy." She got up and followed Pietro pouncing him once they were through the second set of doors.  
  
"If that thing about pets and owners being alike is true," Fred muttered as he continued lunch, "God help us all."  
  
The scenery became a blur as the hit the freeway, Scott having fun with the radio and Lance trying to listen to the music and not Scott's singing. He sounded like a cat being strangled, except worst. At least the cat would eventually shut up and die.  
  
"So where are we going?" The shaded mutant sipped some of his coffee they'd gotten at a pit stop before hitting the freeway. Everything so far was in order, Xavier thought that Scott was going to DC to see the memorial wall (not sure of its name) and Scott got to be free for a while.  
  
"New Hampshire," Lance replied hoping that the other would simply leave it at that, of course he didn't.  
  
"What's in New Hampshire?"  
  
"It's where my Mom took me to live after we left," he answered simply, "I'm going to go visit her."  
  
"Oh," Scott made a note to stop asking as it really seemed to be a touchy subject. "Um, wow, if I'd known I wouldn't have come along. Sorry."  
  
"Don't be, I have to admit it's nice not being alone." That seemed to be life, his mother was right. Being alone sucked and his life was a giant shit hole. He didn't want to grow up and be a mutant terrorist, that's the life he was being driven towards. "Do you believe people can change their destinies?"  
  
"Of course, why?"  
  
"I don't want to do this anymore," the earth manipulator responded simply.  
  
It took a few moments to the other mutant in the passenger's seat to process this. "Do what?"  
  
"There is no black and white, Shades, don't you see? We're stuck in gray and hell, I'm not even sure what I'm fighting for. I have control over my powers though, there's nothing that really pins me as a mutant, so why the hell am I in a group that doesn't want normal lives if that's in fact all I do want?"  
  
"I think we're in the same boat, just different captains. Xavier is always talking about 'normal' and 'fitting in with humanity' and all this other stuff yet trains us to be… I don't know, soldiers I guess."  
  
"Pretty fucked up world we live in. I'd leave you know, after I graduate I want to go to college, you know, get a degree and all that." He rubbed the back of his neck. "There's the issue of money and all that stuff though, not like Mystique is going to come back, and if she did she wouldn't pay for me to go to college. I can't just leave them either, they're my family."  
  
Scott nodded in understanding leaning into the worn seat. "I can understand that one. That's why I'm not in Hawaii with my brother."  
  
"I think I'd feel better is Cami was in Hawaii, if I could contact her and all. She'd be safer, we'd be safer."  
  
"Violence runs in the fam…" Scott shut his mouth when Lance glared at him. "Shutting up now."  
  
"No, it's ok. Let's just drop it ok?"  
  
"Alright." Then another topic of conversation came to Scott's mind. "Speaking of New Hampshire, the Professor found a mutant on Cerebro, told me about her just before we left Bayville. Apparently she's in her late 30s," he shrugged like it was no big deal, "she can create force fields apparently."  
  
Immediately Lance pulled over, so sharply Scott almost got whiplash from it. "What was her name?"  
  
~  
  
((A/N: Dun dun DUH! Finally updated, yay! I watched Ghost in a Shell, good movie if you can read quickly (subtitles) and… yeah, explanation for the whole revival thing. Go check out "When it Ends" if you're wondering what happened after "Crimson Windows to the Soul". I'm not going to update that one till I get at least a review. Next chapter is angsty too, and has Kitty even though I hate her… What's with that? Anyway Go read it, k? Thanks.)) 


	6. GI Joe on Steroids

The woman held her legs against her chest. "Where am I?" Slowly she brought her gaze up to the tall man in a white lab coat. Hair that was as brown as dark chocolate was brushed out of her face with delicate fingers pausing as the touched the cool, smooth surface of metal disrupted only by where wires were covered and a small outlet by her temple unseen to the eye that wasn't looking for it. "What have you done to me?" The man took a step closer but an invisible wall was sent at him and pushed him against the wall. "ANSWER ME!"  
  
"We revived you from the dead, you were murdered, Miya, and your body was put in stasis and worked on so we could reanimate and improve you. I see you have control over your powers." This just got him shoved further against the wall.  
  
"What makes you think I wanted to be?" She raised him into the air by creating a force field bubble around him. There was no answer and brown eyes lit with anger. "Where is my son?"  
  
"We don't know," terror stricken the suspended man struggled against his invisible shackles.  
  
"What about my daughter?" She hadn't seen her little girl in years and was afraid, though she didn't show it, that her husband had killed her.  
  
"She disappeared from her foster home about five months back, no one knows where she is."  
  
"Fine," she dropped him. "I'll find them myself." With that she left covering her implant with her hair. How dare they pull her out, how dare they assume!  
  
"A plague on both your houses! And then he just started to go into this whole dying act," Todd explained faking to choke, "it was just way over done, yo, and the teach still gave him hundred percent. I only got ninety for my poem, maybe I should've died in it."  
  
"I'm surprised you are complaining about getting ninety, that's still an A." Cami hooked her chin on Pietro's head, arms around his neck as he gave her a piggyback ride to the shelter. Well, he didn't exactly have much of a choice considering she'd just hopped on. "We exploded something in science."  
  
"You sound proud of that," Ray mention walking a few paces behind them.  
  
"Oh, I am, it takes a lot to blow up a candle."  
  
Pietro rolled his eyes; "I'm not going to even ask how you three managed that one."  
  
"Don't worry, we don't know how we did it." She looked around the street letting her mind wander; suddenly an amazing discovery hit her. "McDonald's triple thick milkshakes are just soft serve with flavoring!" This just won her some strange looks. "What? They are."  
  
"That was random," Pietro explained, "and please, don't choke me."  
  
"Oops, sorry. But they are, I think they're making us pay more for a flavored ice cream cone in a cup."  
  
"So what? We can never go there or nothing anyway." Todd yawned spotting a random cardboard box by the store marked with a black, felt pen 'free'. "I'll be right back." Free was a word that he was addicted to; he took home a worthless spool that used to have rope on it just because it was free. Later it'd been used as an outdoor table.  
  
"Aw man," Fred hit his forehead, "what now?"  
  
"Cami!" Todd called back across the street after a while, "You might want to come see this!"  
  
"Um." Scott thought if Xavier had mentioned a name, "no, there wasn't a name that could be found." He frowned as Lance proceeded to hit his head on the steering wheel. "Hey, stop it."  
  
"Sorry," one more hit for good measures, "I just thought. I guess that sometimes I can't believe she's dead. Stupid, huh?"  
  
"Not really," Scott looked at the field they were next to, rows of corn stopping abruptly and turning into smooth hills. "I thought Alex was dead after a while but he's alive."  
  
"Yeah but you didn't see him die, she held me and told me I was special, like her, and that's why they killed her. I held onto her hoping somehow I'd be able to keep her with me, but she died anyway and. she hadn't done anything." No, Lance thought shaking his head as water welled in his eyes, I will not cry, it happened years ago, I'm not going to cry.  
  
"Hey," Scott grinned a small comforting smile, "why don't I drive for a while? Then we'll get some food and park for the night."  
  
"Whatever." Lance got out of the jeep and crossed in front of the hood to the passenger's side. Before he got in Scott put his arms around the other nuzzling Lance's neck.  
  
"It's ok, you can cry if you need to."  
  
"I." Lance closed his eyes and held Scott in return dropping his head to rest on the others, "thanks."  
  
"Oh my god!" Cami picked up the little brown and gray bundle of fur, "Freddy, can we keep her?" The fair sized puppy licked Cami's face, tail wagging at a speed that rivaled Pietro's as Todd thought of ways to use the now empty box.  
  
Fred sighed heavily, "If we didn't you'd attack me wouldn't you?"  
  
Cami nodded enthusiastically as the puppy yipped and mouthed her chin before continuing to lick it. "With all I could manage, not that it'd do anything to you but I'd figure out a way to get black mail on you and never speak to you again."  
  
"Her name is Greg, right?"  
  
"Nope," Lance's little sister started back toward home carrying her new friend proudly. "When the right name comes to me, I'll know."  
  
Todd dragged his new cardboard box along. It might make a good desk. "Think she wags her tail fast enough?"  
  
"Hidy," Cami said after a moment of silence.  
  
"Hm?" All four boys looked at her with the same look her milkshake comment had got her.  
  
"Her name is Hidy." Hidy stopped licking Cami's face to look up at her new owner and bark wagging her tail faster if that was possible.  
  
"Hell, fucking, no," Lance took the tape out and threw it in the back seat, "we are not listening to A Knight's Tale soundtrack again."  
  
"Then why do you have it?"  
  
"To listen to occasionally not five times straight!"  
  
Scott had chosen a random tape and put it in, then he played it five times straight. "I thought you liked 'We Will Rock You'."  
  
Lance sighed and shook his head, "It was fun the first three times, the last two were just annoying. And I'd never imagine you head banging, much less when driving."  
  
"Yeah, well, at the Institute I have to be responsible and a role model, I don't think you mind much."  
  
"Hey, whatever works for you." The earth manipulator leaned back in his seat. "Damn it, now you've got it stuck in my head!" He slapped his forehead when this just got Scott to sing.  
  
"Come on, it's the best way to get a song out of your head."  
  
"I am not singing."  
  
"Fine, then I'll play the tape again." Scott started to pull over so he could get the tape from the back.  
  
"NO! Fine, I'll sing, but not that song."  
  
"How about Moulin Rouge?"  
  
Lance sighed, "No, I've had enough of that movie, Pietro got it and every time Cami isn't in a good mood she'll watch it, cry when Satine dies, then watch the part of Titanic where Leonardo DiCaprio dies and laughs replaying the scene until she feels better."  
  
"Strangely enough I can see her doing that and. wait a minute, why did Pietro get Moulin Rouge? I mean, yes I could see him that way but I don't really ever remember him not having a girlfriend, or four." He added thinking back to the Sadie's Dance.  
  
"Nicole Kidman as a stripper slash hooker, plus various other girls in scant clothing for the age they were in. Plus he likes the songs though he'll never admit it."  
  
"Ok, so not Moulin Rouge. 'I Love Rock and Roll'."  
  
"That's nice, what rock song?"  
  
"That is the song."  
  
"Oh, ok, you start."  
  
"Ok, that is the last straw Pietro Maximoff!" Cami growled and grabbed her pillow as Hidy yipped and followed her, barking at the bottom of the stairs to be carried up and knew to attack the adrenaline junky once placed on his bed. "GIVE ME BACK MY BLANKET!" Pietro woke up to puppy teeth gnawing on his leg and a flat pillow smacking him in the head.  
  
"Aw. why can't we sha. AH!" He yelped as Hidy decided to chomp down on him.  
  
"Hidy, no. Don't eat Pietro no matter how much he deserves it." The pup just wagged her tail and yipped taking one of the blankets on the bed in her mouth and dragging it with her over to Cami. "Thank you. I'm going back to bed now."  
  
Pietro shook his head as the two left, that dog seemed smart, sure dogs were naturally smart, that one was freakishly smart though. It. Hidy had this look that told you somehow she knew what you were saying, she'd figured out that Todd was the easiest to get scraps from and that the X-men were bad and it was just her first day!  
  
"AH!" A loud crash came from downstairs and in the time it'd take a humming bird to flap it's wings once Pietro was downstairs. The living room was not only it's usual mess but had been torn apart as well. Cami had been flung into a wall and Hidy was by her licking her hand, and in the middle of the room stood a big man with a big gun. He was like a G I Joe on steroids except part metal.  
  
"I take it you're not from CPS," Pietro remarked dodging a bullet of some sort. He glanced at Cami to assess her injuries this gave just enough time for the guy to get a hit. It was a tranquilizer that didn't do close to shit, just brought Pietro down to only twice as fast as a regular human. A flash lit up the room like lightning, except a lot closer and Pietro turned brain acting slower than normal and subconscious mumbling at his regular speed about sleep to see Ray at the bottom of the stairs with sparks flying out of his hands.  
  
"Come peacefully and none of you will get hurt," the psycho GI Joe gone bad growled.  
  
"Bull shit," Ray muttered back as Fred and Todd ran to the top of the stairs.  
  
"Little late for that," the drugged speedster spat gesturing toward Cami. The human spark plug looked in the direction and frowned before giving the intruder all the power he had.  
  
"So this is how Scott Summers sees the world," Lance remarked looking up at the stars through ruby quartz.  
  
"Yes, either that or blind, now give them back." Scott made a random swipe for his glasses back feeling a hand wrap around his wrist and chapped lips brushed his knuckles as his glasses were put back on him. Scott looked at Lance not recognizing the warm half smile on his face. It was so foreign and out of place on the rebel's face and yet. it fit.  
  
"What? Is there something on my face?"  
  
"No. I just never realized how human you were before, if that makes any sense."  
  
"I guess it does," Scott thought for a moment, "wait. no it doesn't."  
  
"Well, you know I was just, yeah, you're an X-man and all and I don't know how that wouldn't make you human but."  
  
Scott sighed and flopped onto Lance's lap, "Shut up and kiss me, I know you want to." To Scott's surprised Lance leaned down and kissed him deeply. "Ok, that was unexpected."  
  
"What? You told me to so I did."  
  
"Yeah, but I wasn't expecting anything that good. Do it again." Scott was still surprised when Lance did, running his hand under the other's shirt and tracing the abdominal muscles moving his hand slowly down enjoying the groan from Scott's throat. It wasn't like Scott had imagined it but it was just as good in a different way. Soon the two bodies were entwined in a lustful heap in the back of a forest green jeep parked at an abandoned rest stop. Scott closed his eyes as Lance nipped at his neck finding a sweet spot and latching onto it. They were in their own personal Utopia when Professor Xavier's voice crammed into Scott's thoughts.  
  
Paying no heed to the emotions of his student, as it wasn't his business Xavier jumped right to the point. Scott, the Brotherhood is missing.  
  
((A/N: Damn Xavier with his bad timing. Anyway, the plot thickens. or is born *shrugs* I dunno. Hope you enjoyed it REVIEW!)) 


	7. The Cell

Neko: I just realized I forgot to do my rant at the beginning of the last chapter. Well, that won't do. But I really have no choice *slaps her forehead* This chapter is planned to be dark so be warned, and Pietro/Cami are going to get a bit more obvious than just piggyback rides and torturing each other. Two people have said they like Cami! Cami: YAY! *Dances* Lance: Can I refuse relation to her? Neko: Oh, and if ya didn't figure out I named their mom Miya and she's searching for them after causing general havoc in the laboratory place. Wait a minute, why are you two here? Lance: Scott asked me to fill in so he could go to his therapist. Cami: And Fred's out for pizza.  
  
Fred held onto Cami, blood seeping into his shirt from the wounds the girl had acquired ramming into the invisible wall holding them in and trying to get out. The boy's didn't understand why she was so desperate to be free; Fred had to hold her to prevent her from killing herself. The girl struggled and tried to get away before she'd went limp and became a crying mess.  
  
The small steal box that was just big enough to hold the five of them with benches on three sides was quiet as Fred, convinced Cami wouldn't try to hurt herself again handed her to Pietro.  
  
"What's wrong?" The speed demon stroked her hair in an attempt to calm her down and when she tried to answer him she ended up hiccuping collapsed in Pietro's arms. "If she gets hurt anymore than she is Lance is going to have all of our heads, you know."  
  
The other three nodded in understanding knowing perfectly well what Avalanche would do to them.  
  
"No more mentioning of him," Pietro continued, "if they're monitoring us and find out, if they don't already know that they didn't get all of us they could get him too and right now he's our only hope."  
  
"Hidy." Cami sniffled followed by another hiccup.  
  
"Hidy is going to be fine, Cami," Pietro tried to calm her. She just shook her head.  
  
"I think she means that she could help, yo." Todd put in as helpfully as he could.  
  
"Oh, yeah, we're going to be saved by a puppy." Pietro rolled his eyes then noticed Ray studying Cami with a strange look. "What's up with you?"  
  
"She's not in any pain," Ray responded sounding perplexed, "I mean, not physically." It was true, she wasn't paying any attention to the open wound the size of a half-dollar on her temple, or the split lip, or the horribly black and blue arms. "Cami, do you realize how injured you are? Shit, we should probably get a doctor." Ray stood up to see if he could get a guard's attention.  
  
"I am?" The wind rider sniffed a couple of times calming down, lips parted slightly as Pietro touched his finger to the crack in her lip and then showed her the blood. "I am."  
  
"You've also got a scrape on your head and your arm is messed up pretty bad," Pietro informed smearing the blood onto his shirt to clean his finger. "You really gave the wall hell."  
  
There was another sniff and Cami buried her face in Pietro's shoulder. "I'm used to pain," she murmured, "after they left I wasn't his little girl anymore, if I mentioned them he'd beat me, if I laughed when I wasn't suppose to he'd beat me, and when I cried he'd beat me even harder. After a while you just get numb to it." She'd been treated better than her mother though, she could remember almost every night the yelling and the sounds of skin on skin. It got to the point it was easy to sleep through. She remembered Lance holding her against him, covering her ears and trying to protect her. That had only made things worst in the long run. Thank god for CPS and paranoid neighbors.  
  
"It's alright," Pietro cooed as Todd smacked Ray and told him to stop calling attention to them. "I'm not going to let anyone hurt you here, you know, because Lance would probable do something horrible like cut little Pietro off and feed us his cooking so we died a slow death."  
  
"Yeah, sometimes it's scary how protective of you he is," Fred put in seriously considering sitting on both Ray and Todd.  
  
"So is that the only reason you care?" Cami asked looking at both of them, but mostly at Pietro.  
  
"Of course not, I care because," Pietro paused and shrugged, "well, you know."  
  
"No, I don't."  
  
Pietro was about to speak again when the sound of footsteps echoed down the hall, and voices came closer to their cell.  
  
"I told you not to send your Frankenstein after them! He practically killed the girl," the first voice was saying, quite in a timid way for what he was saying.  
  
"Yes, and now we have to waste resources patching her up!"  
  
"Do you even care that she's a human being?"  
  
"No, because she's not, she's a mutant being." The second voice was gruff and cold. "They should be living in the forest with the apes or something."  
  
"I do not believe that you are saying this! They are humans as much as you and I, yet you're keeping them in cages like animals."  
  
"And you aren't doing shit about it."  
  
"It's not like I can do much but make sure you don't kill them!"  
  
They stopped in front of the cell containing the Brotherhood and Fred, Todd, and Ray went on the defensive as Pietro held to Cami tighter against him.  
  
"Oh come on," the shorter man who was balding with the voice that could make a penguin shiver huffed, "certainly by now you know that your powers are useless here."  
  
The other man was tall and handsome, with a kind face and a worried expression. "Please, we're just going to take care of her injuries, we don't want to hurt her."  
  
"To-late!" Pietro snapped too quickly for anyone to process. He took a deep breath then continued so they would understand. "You can take her only if I come too, make sure you don't try anything funny. You know, shouldn't we get a phone call or something? Or when the constitution said 'all men' did they mean normal non-mutant men?"  
  
"If you'd calm down," the tall man replied putting his hands to ease Pietro down, "what we do is research mutants to see if we can get information to help humans of all types. You five are clearly evolved, we just want to see in what ways other than the obvious."  
  
"Let me go." Cami stood up wavering slightly from a head rush and walked up to the force field. "I trust him." She placed a hand on the invisible barrier and the shorter man pressed a few buttons on the side and the wall went down long enough for Cami to collapse and be picked up by the taller one.  
  
"No, Cami," Pietro got up and pressed his hand against the transparent wall and hung his head, "we need to get the hell out of here." He turned to the other three in the cell. "Now."  
  
A/N: I know, short and angsty, I was planning more but next chapter. I don't know when I'll update next, anywhere from a week to a month, but I'll try to as soon as I can! 


	8. Barnyard Animals, Crazy Drivers, and a N...

Neko: *with freaky horror music* I'm Ba-ack Scott: RUN AWAY! Neko: I see you're feeling better, Scott: My dosage of Prozac was upped. Fred: Mmmm, pizza. Neko: *-_- At least I don't pay you guys, gimme some pizza Freddy!  
  
Lance lie in the back of the jeep being starred at through ruby quartz from the front seat. A worried expression etched the owner of the lenses' face as he looked over the passenger's seat doubting if he should have told him or not. For close to half an hour neither said anything.  
  
Scott, the Professor addressed him after a discovery had been made, I've found Whirlwind's signature and by reading the dog we found at their house's mind they all seem to be alright. Scott.  
  
Yeah? The shaded mutant answered reaching out to poke Lance and get his attention. Where are they?  
  
In the same place I detected that new mutant signature, I'll give you directions.  
  
A mental road map appeared in Scott's mind and he poked Lance again. "Come on, I know where they are."  
  
"Not like we'd get there before something bad happens to them," Lance muttered smacking Scott's poking hand.  
  
"We can try," Scott clambered into the driver's seat. "Get up here."  
  
"Whatever," Lance sighed getting up and hopping over the passenger's seat barely have time to put his buckle on before Scott stepped on the gas pedal and followed the route given to him like a bat out of hell.  
  
X  
  
Maya Alvers paced through the halls that were frighteningly clean, it was an endless twisted maze of corridors and doors with brightly colored labels over them. She'd managed to discover she was in New Hampshire, the perfect place to hide a lab like this where no one would think of looking for it, and that she'd been dead for eight years. How old her little Lance must look, he'd be eighteen now.  
  
"How do I get out of this place?" she suddenly asked herself in frustration brushing her chocolate brown hair back near violently. That was when she noticed that things looked different and closed her good eye. "What the heck?" As her real eye snapped open she came to the realization that the metal on her face was connected to an artificial eye. "Great, I'm part Borg now or something!"  
  
"Actually, Maya, when they killed you they basically shattered your eye." As the mutant whipped around the tall man braced himself for being thrown against the wall but wasn't. Deciding she wasn't going to hurt him, he continued. "I prevented him from making you like those other one's he's resurrected, he always has to try and make them more powerful as his own assistance."  
  
"Are you?"  
  
"No, I'm his cousin and therefore second in charge of this facility, I'm afraid that it's all I can do to keep him from doing actual experiments on mutants or killing them. He has a twisted mind but has the power and knowledge to make another lab if I got this one shut down."  
  
Maya blinked turning the rest of the way around, black cloth from the robe she was wearing swishing across the tile of the floor. "What's your name?"  
  
"Brooks, Jonathan Brooks." He motioned her to follow him, "I have someone to show you, Maya."  
  
"My son?" She asked hopefully stepping forward.  
  
"No, your daughter."  
  
X  
  
"He looks like one of those tigers at the zoo," Fred commented as he watched Pietro pace the cell with Ray and Todd.  
  
"I'm getting dizzy watching him," Ray remarked, he had a feeling that Pietro wasn't going to calm down until Cami was back.  
  
"Lance is like his best friend, yo," Todd retorted crouching in the corner with his eyes half close, a single noise that was out of place would sent him to his feet and in defense mode. "Anything happens to Cami, Lance never talking to him again is the least of his problems, least of any of our problems. He'd avalanche our asses."  
  
Fred nodded, slightly amazed that Pietro hadn't said anything about him being right there. The speed demon just continued pacing as much with worry as with stored up energy. It was like the prison all over but his father wouldn't be coming to get him out.  
  
"Where are they?" The sudden outburst brought the three other boys to attention as Pietro slammed his fist on the nearest wall. "She should be back by now, I shouldn't have let her go!" Lance was going to kill him that was a fact. When he'd first arrived at the Brotherhood Boarding House Pietro had developed a crush on Lance, he'd known he was bi, but he'd never thought Lance would even think of another guy that way. Then Cami had showed up and after a while Lance's little sister had taken the earth shaker's place. No one but him would ever know that though.  
  
"Relax, Pietro," Fred settled back down, "I'm sure Cami is perfectly capable of taking care of herself."  
  
"Not-in-the-condition-she-was-in!" He took up pacing again this time stopping before turning around and looking toward the door. Then something hit him. "If they study mutants here where are the others?"  
  
"Beats me," Todd looked around the cell like he could see through the metal walls when suddenly the lights went out. "What the fu," his sentence dropped as his eyes, which were capable of seeing through darkness, caught a shadow coming toward them right before a giant spot light temporarily blinded them all.  
  
X  
  
The steady beat of the heart monitor and the slow swoosh of the breathing machine had eventually lulled Cami to sleep despite her state and where she was. And I.V. had been slipped beneath her skin and into a main vein and a clear liquid was slowly dripping into her blood stream. It made every spot that had been injured tinkle and sting at the same time, but not in a way that it hurt. She was a bit distressed when she couldn't feel Pietro's finger on her lips.  
  
"Camilla?" The wind creator wasn't sure if she was dying or if someone in the real world was calling her name, there was no bright light or tunnel, but after a while she realized that was her mother's voice.  
  
I must be dead, she thought to herself. That thought was quickly destroyed as a sharp pain jolted up her arm like electricity and her wounds started to ache again. "No, stop it!" She could almost hear her skin splitting apart again and fought with tears.  
  
"What's happening?" her mother demanded placing her warm hand on her daughter's forehead, stroking her hair with her other hand as she had done when Cami had been sick as a little girl.  
  
"Her body is rejecting the healing juice. It was never used on mutants before; we thought it'd have the same effect as it did on humans and heal her." Brooks pulled the I.V. out and washed the area. "We were able to make this from the blood of a mutant who could heal herself and others. On all the volunteers we tested it on were healed noticeably, even the one with A.I.Ds showed improvement. I don't know what's happening but it seems that her X-gene is attacking the other."  
  
The pain subsided and the click of a keyboard started up as Cami opened her eyes before squeezing them shut due to the intense light.  
  
"As I expected, since the medicine contained a foreign X-gene her body rejected it after it was identified. If I'd known it would have this reaction I would've never tried it." He continued typing.  
  
"So your inventions won't help mutants! So we are like animals to you," Maya looked at her daughter and brushed light brown hair from her face, "you get benefits but we only get experimented on."  
  
"That's not true, Maya. Perhaps if our advances do make it to the public they'll accept mutants."  
  
"Or raise us like livestock."  
  
Cami tried opening her eyes again, and this time got her lids parted and when she adjusted to the light she saw someone she never thought she'd see again. "Momma?"  
  
X  
  
"Scott, you're going to fucking kill us!" Lance covered his head as Scott drove through a 'short cut' that consisted of avoiding cows, chickens, sheep, and other barnyard animals. The seismic enhanced mutant looked in front of them to see a fleeing flock of poultry. "I'm all for doing what you want, but I think the farmer just called the cops."  
  
"We can out run them," Scott said casually like he'd done this before.  
  
"In this jeep? Why do you think I generally stay out of trouble in Bayville?"  
  
"You could've told me that before I started through the field."  
  
"CORN!" Lance ducked again as they entered the corn field, which thankfully had been mostly harvested. "Ok, so aside from going to jail we've destroyed three fences, put a whole bunch of livestock in therapy, and maimed a corn field. I didn't know they grew corn up here."  
  
"I'm sure the Professor can pay for it, we're in a hurry."  
  
"Man, I bet Batman didn't have a psycho partner."  
  
"Wait, why am I your partner?"  
  
"Because you're fruitier than I am and everybody knows Robin was Batman's bitch."  
  
"So now I'm your bitch."  
  
"Yep. Look out for the truck!" They were once again back on the road, right in front of a sixteen wheeler. The truck's driver slammed on the brake making the trailer slide to the side and traffic become blocked. "In one day you are being more of a delinquent than I have in my entire life!"  
  
"Nah," Scott waved his hand in dismissal, "I haven't destroyed a gym, or half a school, or caused a cave in on my team mates."  
  
"I get your point. You're getting close though."  
  
"I'm not your partner."  
  
"Yes you are they're my team."  
  
"Ok, good point." Scott tapped the side of the door as he drove seeming completely oblivious to the fact he was driving near twice the speed limit and that the men in blue would be joining them at anytime. "We need some good chase music."  
  
Having learned not to argue with him about three fences ago (he's just not going to let that go) Avalanche went through his tapes until he saw the one Pietro had made. That'd do. He slid the tape into the crappy tape player and turned it up so 'Stupefy' blasted on the speakers.  
  
"This'll make a great movie one day," Lance muttered as they passed the 57th speed limit sign since they started.  
  
X  
  
"So they temporarily blinded us, slapped these collars on us and threw us outside." Ray itched at the mechanical device as he sized up the situation. "Hopefully they double as flea collars because I think Todd's have migrated over to me."  
  
Pietro ignored the sarcastic light bulb and looked around their surroundings, it was like a prison yard surrounded by more, let's say comfortable, areas. There was actually a library to one side, a cafeteria on the other, and a park set off from the rest. "They have children here."  
  
It was true, there were kids ranging from nine to twelve at the play ground, some looking like they were at a normal park and some standing off from the others scared.  
  
Pietro tried to run over there, but ended up doing it at a normal speed which caused him to stop. "Man, our powers are still blocked."  
  
"Well of course, silly." The boys whipped their heads around to see a petite blonde with radiant purple eyes who could be anywhere from he early teens to her early twenties. "How else would they keep us from escaping?"  
  
"I don't know," Pietro replied sarcastically, "fences?"  
  
The girl laughed and walked up to Fred with vibrant purple eyes trained on his face. "That's also what the collars do, I'm Phoebe, but people also call me Ghost."  
  
"Blob, I mean Fred," the large mutant practically stuttered not used to female attention. He blushed when she giggled.  
  
"You're cute; they're just kind of freaky." She looked at the other three boys who all dropped their jaws. She turned around and studied Ray before pointing at his hair. "Is that some sort of disease?" she asked referring to the red.  
  
"What? No it's not!"  
  
Ghost saw she had insulted the boy and frowned before smiling nervously, "Sorry, I guess I've just been in here too long."  
  
"How long would that be?" Fred asked as Ray glowered, Todd tried to be unnoticeable not knowing what the girl would say about him, and Pietro looked around at his surroundings nervously.  
  
"Uh," Phoebe bit her tongue in thought, "I don't remember, I was there age though." She pointed at the playground.  
  
"How old are you now?"  
  
"I don't know I lost track."  
  
A/N: Yes, I added another OC because Freddy needs some lovin'! Come to think of it Phoebe is actually closer to me than Cami, that's kind of scary. Oh well, I like Fred. Sure he has a bad attitude sometimes and all that, but still. Don't you just want to hug him? Yes, as I've said before, he needs more screen time and all that so I'm giving him some more fic time. Though 'The Stuff of Villains' did have a healthy dosage of Fred, and the rest of the BH. *makes mental note to add Lance playing guitar into fic* 


	9. Tormented, Worried, and Paniced

Cami: I was called a Mary Sue! Neko: Um, you kind of are. Cami: *glares homicidally* Scott: *hurriedly to avoid the wrath of Cami* But we all still love you! Fred: And it was only one person. Lots of other people like you. Cami: Still! Is it my fault Pietro had a crush on my older brother and when he couldn't have him it was 'Oo, little sister and no one calling me a homo' is it? Fred: Somebody needs a hug. Cami: *sees mass of Fred with arms open coming at her* AH!!!! *runs away screaming* Scott: I thank you for that.  
  
It was already dark by the time Scott finally stopped due to lack of gas. "Minor set back," he told Lance getting out of the jeep. Lance was all moody again and looked pretty pissed. "Come on, should be a gas station close."  
  
"Maybe this means we aren't supposed to go."  
  
"What is with you?" Scott threw his hands up and walked around the front of the jeep, opened the passenger's door, and pulled Lance out. "They're your team yet it's like you don't want to go get them."  
  
Lance pulled away from the other. "I don't want to see more people I care about die!" The outburst was only semi-unexpected. "At least this way I can pretend they're fine and that I haven't lost them as well." He started to storm down the road.  
  
"So you're not even going to try?" Scott yelled after him angrily. "Just going to give up all hope!"  
  
Lance paused in his tracks and turned half way around. "I learned hope won't get you anywhere a long time ago, Summers!"  
  
Scott practically growled. Lance's negative attitude was starting to get to him. Then in a total irrational spur of the moment act, the laser charged the earthquake and tackled him. "I am not going to let you do this to yourself," he hissed, "for some reason I care too much about you to let you. You pretend you don't care what happens to them but I know you do, so stop it."  
  
X  
  
"So where did they have us before we came here?" Fred asked Phoebe as Pietro looked around, Ray continued moping, and Todd was Todd.  
  
"Quarantine," the unusually chipper girl replied, "so you wouldn't get any of us sick. And to make sure none of you were sick or injured, if you were then they'd take you to the medicine lab."  
  
At the word injured Pietro listened, knowing that's where Cami would be. "Where's the medicine Lab?" He focused on her waiting for a reply.  
  
Phoebe blinked once and then twice before she realized he actually meant it. "You actually think I know?" she asked pointing to herself with wide eyes. She shook her head closing her eyes as she did so. "Your guess is as good as mine, maybe even better."  
  
"If I had this collar off of me I could search the entire place in less than seconds," Pietro muttered pulling at the metal around his neck.  
  
Phoebe blinked again then shook her head, "There have been some rumors that enough power could short it out, but it's just rumor." A basket ball from the court rolled over to them and she picked it up tossing it to a large boy with his shirt off playing three on three, shirts and skins.  
  
"Shouldn't have given him the idea," Todd pointed out as Pietro began to scheme.  
  
"Where's the electrical box?" Pietro asked after a moments thought.  
  
"Again you ask me like I know. How do you get your hair to stay like that?" Phoebe asked totally off of topic.  
  
The speed demon ignored her and instead addressed his team mates. "We'll spread out and look for it, meet back here in half an hour." Before there were any protests he was gone, as he usually was before one of his plans could be questioned.  
  
"Yeah, it's really going to be where we can get it," Ray muttered walking off nonetheless.  
  
"I'll check around the cafeteria," Fred said, he was hungry but he also was iffy about cafeteria food. He was that hungry though.  
  
"And I'll," Todd paused losing his sure look and shrugging, "I don't know, wander."  
  
X  
  
"I can get you two out of here," Jonathan told the mother and daughter as Cami finally summoned enough energy to stand up. He'd found some extra lab coats to give them so they didn't stick out in the maze of disgustingly clean hallways.  
  
"No," Cami had her face covered with her hands feeling something inside her that didn't feel right, almost made her insides feel empty and tormented, and split her fingers apart enough to look at the floor. "Not until I get them out." She leapt off the ground moving her hands from her face and out to balance her in the air and glided over to the door, hovering as her hand rested on the knob. "Where are they?"  
  
"I have to suggest you forget about,"  
  
"Where are they?" This time her voice was more forceful and demanding as she squeezed the metal knob. "I'm not leaving here without them!"  
  
"I won't let you," Jonathan was shut up by a gust of wind slamming him into the bed in the middle of the room. This feeling was eating her up inside making her feel more aggressive than usual, on the defensive, ready to maim anything in her way.  
  
"Cami," Maya tried in a motherly tone, "we can come back for them when we're more prepared and have a plan."  
  
Her daughter was silent for a while, then sneered chuckling slightly after a moment of thought. "No, I'm not leaving them like you left me." The door knob clicked as she turned it and cracked the door open, she suddenly had a hatred for her mother, for leaving her, for taking Lance away from her. "I'm going to find them even if I get caught in the process." She didn't look back, let them run. Her wounds ached to encourage her to rest and heal but she couldn't.  
  
The sun stung her eyes as it flooded her after an unknown time of wandering. She saw humans of all ages in what resembled a prison yard once her eyes adjusted to the light. There were no fences, no guards, but they all stayed there seemingly unhappy. A flash of corn silk blonde caught her eye and ice blue eyes caught sight of her.  
  
X  
  
Nothing anywhere. He'd looked for some trace of where the electricity was coming from and nothing. He had learned about the people in this hell hole. He'd actually stumbled on what resembled a graveyard with little piles of rocks marking the sites. He'd asked some people there what all this was from and was answered with experiments gone wrong. They also told him of the latest death, a strong young man who never would've died if he hadn't been used as a test subject. When he asked what the test had been the small group of girls and boys was silent for a while before a younger one spoke up. It'd been a shot to give the boy super strength but it'd gone wrong. He became more aggressive slowly and complained about an empty, tortured feeling in him. The results were abnormal strength but he just fell over one day and multiple sores opened up on his body and he bled to death.  
  
It was after being told that Pietro decided they needed to get everyone out or shut this place down. He refused to admit that his father was right, that they would put mutants in concentration camps and study them, but that's what was happening.  
  
He walked around in search more, turning when he felt eyes trained on him. She wasn't healed, she was still bloody and bruised but she smiled at him and started to run toward him. Naturally he ran to meet her, overjoyed that she was safe.  
  
"You're ok," he folded her in his arms the moment he could unsure if he was more glad that Lance wasn't going to kill him or that she was alright.  
  
"As ok as I can be," she replied pressing her face into his shoulder. They stayed like that for a while before she stepped back. "Where are the others?"  
  
"They're around here," the speedster replied trying to shake the feeling that something was different about her. "Everyone is safe and Fred might have even found a girlfriend."  
  
She pulled away from him and frowned rather suddenly looking around her as she hugged herself. "That's good for him, he's a nice guy." She turned and looked up at the sky as it darkened. It'd be dark soon. "How long have we been here?"  
  
"They kept us apart from everyone for a day and when we were put out here it was the afternoon, so not long compared to some of the mutants here."  
  
Her fist reddened as she clutched it at her side. Empty, hallow, tortured, she couldn't get rid of those feelings. "We have to destroy this place." It was like a bomb, the wind concentrated around her body and then rippled throughout the holding area, shaking trees and flipping over tables. It was then Pietro knew something was definitely wrong; she'd never had that much power before.  
  
"What do you suppose we do?"  
  
Recklessness with some sort of method to it proved to be in her bloodline as she turned to face him. He'd seen that look before on Lance right before he came up with an idiotic plan, like outing mutants. A cold smirk that would make even the strongest of people shiver.  
  
"Get the others," she said calmly, "leave the rest to me." She turned, the white lab coat she still wore flaring out behind her as she did so.  
  
"I do not like where this is going."  
  
A/N: Rather short, but yep, thought that'd be a good place to stop.  
  
Now I've decided to tell people why I created Cami: As some people who watched the original X-men show or read the original comics they know Avalanche's real name was Dominic Petros. This is a lot different from Lance Alvers and it was bothering me for no reason. So I just came up with an explanation for myself that gave him a sibling. A friend of mine read a short little thing no one but a select few have seen about Lance reflecting on his past and this unknown sibling and they wanted to know about this sibling. So I decided on giving him a little sister since the Brotherhood doesn't have enough girls and decided to intro her into some stories to be able to venture into Lance's past. Originally Cami's code name was Chameleon and her power was (obviously) camouflaging herself into the background. She was a new mutant at the Xavier Institute and was first in a story I wrote after another strange day at school where at a dance the theme was opposite. So naturally the B-hood boys went as girls except for Fred who stayed home and watched TV. Lance didn't want to do this but Pietro talked him into it. Then at the dance Lance saw Jean being a bitch like she usually is to Scott and being 'oh I really like you' and then running off with Duncan. So of course Lance, being the bonehead he is decided to go and teach Jean a lesson and of course it backfired on him and he ended up having a good time with Scott who didn't know he was Lance. This was all while I was reading Romeo and Juliet in English so it was generally messed up in a Shakespearean way.  
  
Anyway, Cami started out as Bobby Drake's partner in crime and general trouble maker. It was when I found out just how common her power was that she evolved into Whirlwind, sort of coupling her power with Lance's his being control of the ground hers being control of the air. Her original codename was Breeze and that lasted a few days before she became Tornado and finally Whirlwind. I forgot what made me decide to just have her thrown in directly with the Brotherhood, but she was. That was in my first fic 'Truth be Told' which is filled to the rim with original characters but I've noticed that's how most people start out writing so that there's less of a chance of making the characters act against their personalities. The others got dropped after I was comfortable with how I wrote the X-men Evolution characters but Cami stayed.  
  
I never actually intended for her and Pietro to hit it off. At first they were ready to kill each other because Pietro didn't trust her and was afraid that Lance would spend even less time with the team. Eventually they came to an understanding and Lance actually seemed to start spending more time with the team so Pietro was happy. And it kind of went from there because I'm a Pietrance fan as well as a Scance fan. I just like Scance more so my brain decided one day on a sugar high 'hey, we've got Lance's little sister for Pietro to corrupt, that way everyone can be happy'. Generally I myself didn't like this idea but it grew on me and so hints of that relationship kind of started to throw themselves in my stories. (So blame sugar for that one)  
  
Now Phoebe is a different story, she just kind of decided to show up in my head one day when I noticed the lack of Fred in just about everything and decided big boys need love too. Of course she had to end up a petite little blonde that could see passed Fred's exterior. I had to make her eccentric too just for the fun of it. She got inserted in this fic due to lack of a home.  
  
So now you know. 


	10. Destruction, Mayhem, and Scott's Virgini...

Neko: Not much going on in the intro, Fred's still trying to hug Cami. *Cami runs across the background followed by Fred* and Scott ran away with Lance. They said not to wait up for them which usually means don't ask so I'm not going to.  
  
"Why does this remind me of a bad horror movie?" Lance groaned as he looked into the vast stretches of trees. "Bet none of the characters in the movies ever got tied up and dragged along until they found a gas station a mile down the road!"  
  
Scott rolled his eyes though it was obviously just a force of habit since no one could see his eyes. "You whine a lot, you know that? You weren't cooperating." He surveyed the situation in his usual military manner. Since there were only two of them they'd have to get in and get out, nothing big and flashy. Considering both of their powers were big and flashy that wasn't going to be easy. The sun was rising, which was a bit ironic considering the famous saying 'we attack at dawn', a random part of him added 'and tea at noon' in the back of his mind. A rumble through the earth shook him quite literally out of his planning. "What the hell did you do?"  
  
"While you were in la-la land, I made a path." Lance gestured behind him where he had cracked the ground open so the trees parted and revealed a metal, futuristic building. "Now come on, we're wasting time."  
  
"Well, there goes being stealthy."  
  
"We were going for stealth?" Lance asked blinking a couple times. "Well, ok, that plan is definitely down the hole. Let's just storm the place and kill anyone who gets in our way."  
  
"You said that last thing like you don't care that they're actual people."  
  
"Actual _people_ don't kidnap teens and do who knows what with them in large metal laboratories!" The earth manipulator waved at the lab behind them not caring just how obvious they were standing at the end of a path the trees had simply bended to create. Why should he care if these people lived or died?  
  
"That's what police and jails for," Scott retorted not caring that Lance seemed to be getting a bit ticked.  
  
"Fine, we'll just knock them unconscious," Lance growled, "but if you haven't noticed they haven't decided if mutants are humans or not so they could just walk away with animal cruelty on their records." He started for the building quite peeved.  
  
Wisely, Scott shut up. What Lance said was true, mutants weren't considered humans by some people though one would think since their parents were human they'd be considered the same.  
  
X  
  
"That wind was caused by Cami!" Todd's eggs practically dropped out of his mouth as his jaw dropped. "But she doesn't _have_ that type of power. Not even on her best day, she couldn't have."  
  
"Well she did," Pietro replied. It'd taken him a while to find all the others, by the time he had it was lights out and no talking or you'd be thrown into solitary confinement. "I was by her. That definitely came from her."  
  
The conversations of others were a dull roar throughout the cafeteria as they all ate their breakfast. If there was one thing this place did right it was food.  
  
"Where is she now?" Ray asked rolling the sausage around his plate with his fork.  
  
"No clue, she just left," Pietro shook his head worriedly, "said she had a plan, which naturally didn't sound good."  
  
"Never does," Fred mumbled. He felt like he had let Lance down, after all he had been in charge for some unknown reason. It hadn't really seemed to be reality until they had spent the first night with the rest of the mutants. Some didn't even seem to remember what the outside world was like, "probably reckless, and destructive, and made up as she goes along."  
  
"Pro-" Pietro didn't get to finish the word as the lights flickered a couple of times and then went completely off. He watched almost fascinated as the green lights on Ray's, who was sitting across from him, collar become red and start to flash faster and faster until the turned off completely. "Ray, zap your collar."  
  
"Huh?" The electrically enhanced mutant looked up and blinked a couple of times. He saw the serious look on the speedster's face and attempted a small spark seeing it spring from his fingers like a flicker of flame. "Alright." He grasped the metal around his neck in both hands and sent a surge through it. It unclasped and fell harmlessly to the table.  
  
Pietro smiled in light of the small triumph and nodded. "The backup power on these things couldn't take the voltage you give off."  
  
"So not all of you simply blow things up in Science class?"  
  
"Hey," Fred protested, "blowing things up is an art."  
  
"Whatever." Ray snagged the collar of the person next to him, Todd, and short circuited it. Then he did Fred then, a bit reluctantly, Pietro. By this time a crowd had started to gather to see what the strange sparks were.  
  
X  
  
Maya looked around the halls, the sting of her daughter's words ringing in her mind. They couldn't help her though, it wasn't possible. A figure of a body lying in a room wearing a white lab coat caught her eye. She halted abruptly and gapped at the sight. "Jonathan," she called out softly.  
  
"What is it?" He turned and looked back at her from where he was disabling the electricity of the lab to bring the security systems down. The back up power on the mutant collars would kick in so it would still be safe.  
  
Maya blinked a couple of times at the sight of her daughter lying on the floor of a room filled with buttons and monitors. Blood had seeped through the white fabric of the coat and on the skin of a flailed out arm she could see a spot where the skin had split open and was bleeding. There was no way Whirlwind was alive.  
  
"Nothing."  
  
She turned away from the sight and followed Jonathan down the hall.  
  
X  
  
The light around the building flickered once, twice, and then went completely out. It had been hard to tell just what was going on in the daylight and the sudden change caused Avalanche and Cyclops to stop in their tracks.  
  
"Think they forgot to pay their power bill?" Scott asked absently earning a glare from his partner. "Or not, maybe it's some kind of defense."  
  
"Turning off the lights? Yeah, that's probably it." Lance rolled his eyes and started down the makeshift trail again. "Come on, sooner we get Pietro and the rest out the sooner I can destroy this place."  
  
"Do you only think about destruction?"  
  
"No, when we were making out I wasn't thinking a thing about destroying anything, except maybe your virginity." He smirked as he saw Scott turn redder than his glasses at the remark.  
  
"What makes you think I'm still a virgin?" How amazing it was the way Lance could change subjects and be in a tense situation and still be a cocky little bastard crossed Scott's mind before another part (same that said tea at noon) decided to mention how Lance was a cocky little bastard that had almost corrupted him.  
  
"The way you're blushing. Now keep your mind on what we're doing before I have to throw you in an ice cold lake or something."  
  
"Keep _my_ mind on what we're doing?" Scott sighed heavily and shook his head knowing arguing was simply pointless. They could do that later.  
  
X  
  
"I can't do all these people!" Ray gasped practically falling out of his chair. "No way in hell, there are too many, I-"  
  
"I suggest you find a way while we go find a way out of here." Pietro pointed at Ray almost threateningly.  
  
"Is that a threat?"  
  
Pietro nodded, "Or a challenge, choose one. Now you two," he turned to face Blob and Toad, "I trust you can cause enough destruction and mayhem for long enough to provide me with a distraction?"  
  
"Of course, no problem," Todd 'pa-shawed' and grinned, "mayhem is my middle name and destruction is Fred's." He paused for a moment in a period of uncertainty. "If we get caught you'll come rescue us, right?"  
  
"Well obviously." Pietro looked around at the crowd looking at their huddle expectantly. "Ok, now that we all know what we're doing any last words?"  
  
"Yes," Ray injected, "if they ever make a movie of this I do not want some stupid second string part."  
  
"Yeah, and I want to play myself," Toad added with a grin. "They wouldn't be able to find someone as brilliant and charming as me anyway."  
  
"Ok, any last words that has to do with anything?" Pietro waited a few moments (milliseconds) before concluding no one had anything more to say. "That's what I thought. Ok, good luck." With that being said he was gone in a gust of wind.  
  
X  
  
Her mind was fading in and out of consciousness as she lied on the cold floor. It'd been strange, once in the control room, or at least that what she had thought it was, a splitting pain ripped through her flesh. A white pain blinded her and she had passed out, since whenever that was she'd be aware of the floor under her, or the buttons that were no longer lit up around her and then black out again.  
  
After a few in and outs on consciousness she heard a familiar voice, a voice that didn't make her think 'oh god, I'm dead now' but rather that her slow and painful demise might be stopped and she'd live, at the moment that seemed pretty impossible though.  
  
"CAMI!" He slid to a stop when he saw her out of the corner of his eye and promptly crashed into a nearby wall. He ignored the throbbing of his skull and, with the thoughts of the boy he'd been told of running through his mind, sprinted into the room and fell to his knees beside the wind maker. "Yep, Lance is going to kill us all," he muttered not sure if he was saying so to convince himself it only matter what Lance would do not if Cami lived or not or that he wanted his heart out of his throat and to beat regularly. He peeled the lab coat off of her and a small groan came from her indicating that she was in fact alive, if not for long.  
  
"So that's where she got to."  
  
Pietro looked up to see the short man that had an aura of just plain mean creepiness about him. The speed demon took the limp, bleeding body in his arms and stood up. "You now I should kill you," he simply stated.  
  
"You act like it's my fault she's hurt. All I did was give her the injection; it was her blood that pumped too hard through her veins."  
  
Pietro wasn't sure if that was possible and sneered at the man. "You're a monster, pure a simple." He shifted Cami's weight in his arms.  
  
"I think you don't understand, you are the monster, you and your type. I'm really doing the world a favor to the world."  
  
"My father was right about people like you," Pietro practically hissed, "and that's saying a lot since I hate agreeing with him." With that he zipped past the mad-scientist and started toward the cafeteria as Lance and Scott's presence was announced by a shutter of the metal walls.  
  
Neko: Yep, there you go. CHAPTER TEN! It will be slow since I'm working on something else at the moment, but hang in there! 


End file.
